Hong Kong - one of the best places yet!

We know what you mean Rachel- Hong Kong is fantastic with so much to do. We ended up staying 6 days and left just an hour before the Olympic torch started its run through the streets. Mind you, we expected more crowds, the Honkanese must be a bit more laid back about these things.
We took Rachel's advice and went up Victoria peak-although it was very misty, so we could not see a lot. Wandered into a Kashmir clothes shop to our error and discovered the owner was a Muslim preacher and decided that selling clothes was only secondary to converting customers to Islam. Had a lovely walk down to the harbour in the pitch black and found the bar street. Drinks were 4 pounds, so carried onto the ferry.
Had plenty of trips on the star ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island (about 15p a trip). This is certainly a highlight of the old colonial feel.
Had 2 island trips-one to Lamma island for our seafood meal, where Rachel discovered Shrimp, oysters and the freshest fish straight from the tank. Hiked across the island from one side to the other, taking about 1 hour ( a extremely short walk for us these days!) and bumped into a tipsy retired British couple who didn't have a lot of good to say about anything and an Associated board examer/professional piano player.
The second island we visited was Cheung Chau were we had another hike around, this time Craig got us lost and took us up a very steep hill. We also tasted our first dim sum meal here (shrimp dumplings and chicken dumplings).
The final day we visited the Happy Valley racecourse, but unfortuantely there were no horses as we got the wrong course! Should have been on the New Terrotories-typical of Craig's planning! It actually turned out for the best as we got food and endless drinks included in our ticket price (100 HK dollars, about 3.50 each). and watched the horse racing on a big screen from a balcony on the stand. The stand was still three quarters full, given it a nice feel. We understand the Hong Kong love of gambling now and blew a whole 10 pounds on 10 races!
Didn't realise what Hong Kong was all about and would love to go again, as we could have spent much longer there. Saying that, it would have to be in better accomodation! Craig didn't work out how to turn the air conditioning on until after 3 days, so we wondered why we were so sleepy! (stayed in Mirador Mansions, if you know it Rachel? With every nationality you could name, even a naked man at reception negotiating a room rate!)
The next day we headed to Macau (Las Vegas of Asia!) on the 1 hour ferry crossing from Hong Kong, complete with free upgrade! We arrived in Macau with no accomodation on a public holiday, so were wondering if we were actually going to be able to stay, but managed to find a hotel, complete with rat poison in the hallway! OK for 1 night I guess! Ended up gambling the night away in The MGM and the Casino Lisboa. We gambled a whole 500 HK dollars, about 30 pounds and won it all back on the last dice throw of the night on lucky 13! Hooray!!!!!! Got all the free drinks you could think of all night long-red bull, beer, ovaltine, tea, coffee and juice and watched a lot of either very rich or stupid chinese punters gambling their money away. The casino was livened up with dance groups and mimers on stage (Chicago style).
Macau was small and bustling and we found some fantastic furniture shops, well worth a weekend, but you could easily lose your house!
Caught the bus from Macau to Guanghou this morning (Saturday), it broke down half way here and we have finally arrived after hopping on a 2nd bus and then taxi. Waiting in the local youth hostel, which looks like a 4 star hotel as we wait for the overnight train to Haikou in Hainan (the finale in our train/bus/boat journey! -at least for now!). Now the dreaded 4 letter word?